


The Prodigal Sun

by BeesBuzzin, Write4Fun (BeesBuzzin)



Category: RWBY
Genre: AU that no one wanted but the quarantined birthed, But also technically a real world setting but in the 23rd century future??, Comic-book style action, F/F, I’ll tag as I go because I suck a them, Pyromaniac Pansexual Protagonist, Some comedy but also an angst sneak attack, superhero au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:14:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23500660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeesBuzzin/pseuds/BeesBuzzin, https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeesBuzzin/pseuds/Write4Fun
Summary: Vale City, the city of heroes in the 23rd century. NYC has finance, LA has entertainment, DC had politics but travel to the western space between San Francisco and Los Angeles and you’ll find the birthplace of the genetically gifted. It’s what Yang called home.Vale is just like any other city, we just had maaaaybe one too many flying people crash into an airplane or two. Don’t fret though, the money-hungry Schnees have already set up a law to fix that! And please, stop visiting to see the weightlifting babies, we don’t do that anymore.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Yeah so, no idea what’s going on with my drafts for the other stories but it’s annoying.(sorry for the wait on those, working on it) The quarantine isn’t changing anytime soon though, and I’m bored, so why not mess around in a friend’s Super AU for the time being? Right? I thought it was pretty cool so might play around with it.

Yang exited the tall building, it was a start-up company that developed seriously intense video games for the new _hyper-realistic_ virtual reality system. They needed testers and she needed money. It gave her a _wicked_ headache but the reward was worth it.

She pushed all thoughts of money from her mind as she made her way into the bustling streets of Vale City. Nestled on the states’ west coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco, Vale is the shining beacon of twenty-third-century progress—not to mention the city she’s called home for most of her life. The little island of Patch may have been her birthplace but she felt more at home in this concrete kingdom.

She stepped into a crowd next to a faunas woman whose skin was covered in fish-like scales, each one reflecting a different color. She supposed this might surprise some people, but never her. NYC had finance, LA has entertainment, and DC has its politics, but VC was the home of the  _ genetically gifted _ . A place where they  really shined. Pun intended.

They were heroes and heroines with amazing powers ranging from telekinesis to something as simple as being able to talk to trees—the  _ Powered _ . Or even those who didn’t have a “Power” their genetic makeup took a different turn and more so just had a tail, horn or other extra limb—what America has dubbed as  _ faunas _ . Most would say faunas had useless abilities, what can having horns on your head help with, right? She didn’t believe in those who didn’t consider faunas to be apart of the Powered community. Their senses were far better; heightened hearing and night-vision, unless you shared a dominant trait with an animal that is blind or deaf for example. Along with sharing a physically-visual genetic trait, they also shared other traits. Avian faunas could fly, canine faunas could find missing people and cheetah faunas were exceptionally fast. Yang liked to believe that there was no such thing as a truly useless gift, everyone had their area of expertise and that just made them more unique in her opinion. Everyone is needed  _ somewhere _ .

 _ ”’ With great power comes great responsibility’ is a cliche adage.” _ As her dad always said. _“_ _ The real responsibility isn’t just using your strengths for fighting evil, It also means setting an example for others. Not just physically with your powers, but also emotionally with your kindness, socially with your interactions and mentally with your words.  _

_ The power doesn’t make the person, Yang. You do, and it doesn’t make you any better or worse than your Powered or Unpowered peers. The real heroes are the citizens who don’t need powers to do good and get no credit for it, you don’t need superpowers to be a hero. You do good, you die great .” _

Something about those words always resonated with her. Notwithstanding, one’s powers were a  _ manifestation of the soul _ —or as the faunas say _“_ _ your spirit animal _ _”_ , he was right, it didn’t make the person. What you _did_ with said gifts did.

 _ “ If more people realized this, the world would be a better place. Compassion and benevolence can save as many lives as a guy with laser-beam eyeballs _ _.”_ Yang smiled, repeating her father’s words to herself.

She took the words to heart and she knew she would help as best as she could. She would do good to her very last breath and die great. Starting with Vale— _ the most diverse Powered capitol of the country. _

A fact she’s reminded of as a quaking sonic boom pulsed through the air. The blonde looked up to see two girls fitted in chocolate-colored armor rocket across the sky, a cloud of gold smoke left in their wake that smelled oddly like coffee. She sighed, knowing that she belonged up there with the Powered  Huntsmen .

Yeah, you might not need powers to do good but she felt like she needed the _whole_ package. As much as she wished it could, kind words could not evaporate a super-powered villain, even her parents knew that. Doctors, firefighters, police officers and the military were heroes too, she knew that, but she also knew that she had a gift and she wanted to use it.

These days, one out of every three people is born with Powered abilities and pretty much every one of them wants to be a hero but only the truly great ended up being Huntsmen, the _real deal_. Especially now that Powered Huntsmen have surpassed normal movie stars, influencers, and musicians to set the standard for A-list celebrity. Athletes still had their own fame though, considering Powered individuals were not allowed in the Olympics or any sports team or league, even if your power didn’t affect your athletic performance. Especially faunas, ever since a rabbit-faunas dominated in the national slam dunk contest and won a million big ones. The sad part was, a piranha-faunas with the dream of being in the MLB was kicked out but was swiftly taken in by the military, used for his infrared sight which was useful in spotting enemy soldiers who could camouflage or turn invisible.

She’d also love to be flying home right now, considering that she simply _could_ unlike most people... However, after one too many repugnant midair collisions, the Vale Department for the Regulation of Powered Resources (VDRPR) designated the skies for government-licensed travelers only.

Flying may have been off limits,  _technically_ ,  but that had never stopped her. A bit of air travel that cut the time home in half in lieu of taking the freaking over-crowded train wouldn’t hurt anybody. That’s how she justified it at least.

Sure, the cost of transportation has grown crazy cheap since the Schnee Fusion Plant was erected (among the Schnee’s many other businesses) and one of Vale’s best economists and well-known elephant-faunas used her gift of intelligence and calculated the cure for inflation. But that doesn't stop the V-train from taking _forever_ during rush hour. Even though it would be unfortunate to get caught flying illegally, she’d been soaring around Vale ever since she could crawl-fly, so she knew all the best routes to keep herself hidden from view. 

Stepping into a deserted alley, Yang leapt into the air and tensed her muscles to kick-start her flight. Most people think flying feels like floating, but she knew it really felt more like  _ swimming _ —it takes a lot of muscle control and endurance. Luckily, she’s been training for years, the way a runner trains for a marathon, so she can fly today without much trouble. The blonde pulled upward, feeling gravity work with instead of against her.

Keeping close to the cover of the rooftops, she began to weave her way home, cruising in and out of clearings with missile-like precision.

And when a helicopter buzzed its way through the sky above, she couldn’t help but flash her trademark toothy, white smile.

She dropped down to the street as she entered the familiar neighborhood: VC’s East Side, which consisted mostly of public housing projects, pawnshops, a shady strip club, liquor stores and Junior’s rundown night club, which people mainly just used as a bar. Despite its lack of charm, the East Side was still home, so she made herself relax upon approaching the apartment building.

A reverberating _crunch_ of glass snapped her senses to attention. Half a block up, a body careened through the air as he was thrown through the window of a building. A young girl with writhing snakes coiled around her outstretched arms stood on the sidewalk nearby. _Great_ , not only was she a Powered faunas but she was also a _rare_ one—possessing snake traits with a power of...snake hands..to boot. Before Yang can even blink, the body in the building leapt out the window and into the sky. It's another teenager whose woolly knees bent backward, like a goat.

_Shit_ , she cursed to herself—another faunas gang fight. The East Side was home to a large segment of the faunas Powered population, widely known to have the most interspecies tension. There's an especially vicious feud between two local faunas-gangs; _The Cold-Bloods_ —mostly consisting of reptilian and amphibian faunas and _The Warm-Bloods_ —which consists mainly of, you guessed it, mammalian and avian faunas. The fish faunas tended to stay out of it.

As goat-kid  (kid-kid?) bounds through the air, snake-girl reacts. Her arm-snakes surge forward, straightening their impossibly long bodies and clamping on to goat-kid’s thighs with their teeth. Snake-girl then whips her arms back, using the snakes as levers to smash the goat child into the hard pavement.

Knowing the goat-boy wouldn’t be able to take much more, Yang made her decision. She was on snake-girl quickly, she never saw it coming.

In addition to flight, Yang found that the ability to generate and command fire would help _plenty_. Your power can surface at any age but most awaken at a young one, mainly between ages three to thirteen. Lots of laws were put into place for those exact reasons. No one wants to chase around their naked three year old who can survive a truck to the face and bench press its entire family. Yes, that has happened _way_ too often for her liking.

Her own abilities were fitting, alarmingly so. She was a hothead at times, everyone knew that. When she was younger, she knew a boy who knew Chinese and jokingly teased her, _mercilessly_ , when he found out her name after she made a ball of fire dance in her hand. _“_ _ I’ve never seen a blonde dragon before _ _!”_ He would say. Yes, her name was _way_ too fitting but at least her name wasn’t  _ Monkey King _ .

These were just kids though. She wouldn’t need her full Xiao-Long _badassery_.

Sprinting a full speed, she jump-tackled snake-girl before she had a chance to defend herself. A quick shoulder-check and she was knocked into the nearby wall.

With snake-girl diverted, she turned her attention back to goat-boy, who was already bounding up the street and mumbling curses as he fled. Which is just as well—her only goal here was to stop the idiots from killing each other, since getting involved is _technically_ illegal and...an act of vigilantism.

Before any Powered person can start a career as a professional hero, they must apply for a _Powered Huntsmen License_. To lessen the number of applicants, the VDRPR makes the process rather lengthy and expensive. Yang completed all the paperwork, waited until she was the right age and passed the Power competency tests, but has been saving up for a while to pay the _substantial_ application fee. That’s the delay now, _money_ , as it always is.

So, with those shenanigans neutralized, Yang figured it was time to leave before she got into any unnecessary trouble.

"They were at it for almost eight god-forsaken minutes and no one did a darn thing!”

Turning to the source of the voice, she found a mother and her young son standing on the street, both looking quite relieved. The mother pressed a napkin to the little boy’s cheek, against a small cut.

"They blocked the door to our apartment," the mother says. "We tried to run inside but the debris nicked us. These faunas have been getting so dangerous lately…Anyway, who do I have to thank for stopping them?"

Yang ignored the faunas comment and spoke. She didn’t do this for the attention and it was better to be anonymous but she felt the need to let them know they’d be safe whether she had a stupid license or not.

“I'm Yang," she says, shaking her hand. "Just doing what any other decent person would do."

"Well thank you, Yang," she replied, smiling.

"Are you a Huntress?" the little boy whispers, gazing up at her with sparkling brown eyes.

She wasn’t even a _hero_ yet , never mind a full-on _Huntsmen_. She didn’t even have a  _ license _ . But hell, if she gave off the vibe of a pro Huntress then she wasn’t going to question it.

“Uh-“

"Oh, yes I think she is, " the mother answers.

"Just, uh, get home safe," Yang says, continuing her walk to her own home, not admitting that she wasn’t a real hero —

At least not  _ yet _ .

She walked inside the apartment, instantly hit with the familiar fragrance of roses. That smell _always_ lingered thanks to her little sister, who is also Powered. Her ability to move faster than a bullet was _always_ a hard thing to keep up with. It matched her hyper movement and fast-talking tendencies. Ruby would leave petals everywhere and they were a bitch to clean up when the silver-eyed girl didn’t have the energy to evaporate them all. The apartment has always pleasantly smelled like a rose bush and cookies and Yang couldn't imagine it any other way.

Yang approached her speedster of a sister, kissing her hello on the forehead, then stepped back to point to the new video game she brought home.

"Some extra cash for being their guinea pig and they even let me keep the game, so go nuts.”

"Aw yeah, thank you! And every little bit helps though!" Ruby hurriedly reassured before staring down at the floor, scuffing it with the toe of her boot. "I’m sorry I can’t help you more...”

It may have been hard sometimes, but it’ll _never_ be Ruby’s fault, Yang knew. If anything, her shortcomings with the money situation felt like her fault and hers alone. The rational part of herself knew that they were in a rough patch because she had to go from big sister to mother figure _way_ too fast, she was still learning.

“Ruby. I told you to stop with the apologizing or even the thank yous. You did nothing wrong and you don’t have to thank me like I’d ever want to do something besides have you as my partner in crime. Not getting rid of me that easily, shortstack.” Yang ruffled the shorter girl’s red-tipped hair before heading towards the kitchen.

"What are you in the mood for," she says, turning around to face Ruby. “Because I am  _ starving _ . We may even have enough cash-money for dessert!”

Turning back around and heading into the kitchen, the blonde stopped short upon seeing the feast laid out on the kitchen table. “Did we get robbed by really nice people?”

"Happy Birthday," Ruby says with a grin, hugging her side.

Yang froze. A million questions ran through her head, followed by a plethora of emotions. _What the hell? How did you get the money? When did you get the money? Where was I? You cooked? How is the apartment still standing? How did I forget my own birthday?_

Well, the last one wasn’t hard to answer. Frankly, her birthday hardly mattered. She only made an effort to remember Ruby’s and save up for that. It had always been her taking care of Ruby. Always. 

That’s why, when Yang finally got her brain in order to speak, a tear escaped her eyes.

The gesture _meant_ something, even a short break from cooking or using up money on fast food meant a lot. She was so _tired_ of being tired...

“I’m sorry! Are you mad? Do you not li-“ The rest of Ruby’s nervous babble was cut off as the blonde engulfed the shorter girl in a big bear hug, lifting her in the air. “I can’t breathe!”

“Thank you, Ruby.”

The meal reminded her of home.

—-

Both girls finally pushed their plates away, their stomachs uncomfortably full. It turns out Ruby had been helping out an elderly woman in the neighborhood. She went into town for her, did errands, and grabbed the mail. Ruby had assured Yang that it was fine and perfectly safe because it’s not like anyone could catch her anyway. Even if it still bothered her, the older sister ultimately let it go.

The woman rewarded her week of work with a homecooked meal and some money. A meal that Yang was grateful for, it would last a little while and she wouldn’t have to cook. She didn’t mind it but she was just so, _so_ tired sometimes; a bone-deep exhaustion that she would need to sleep off most days. Sleep that she didn’t have time for.

That woman did better than Yang ever did anyway, her cooking was usually pretty heavy when she could: all meat and bread and pasta, and vegetables that she would have to basically force into the younger girl’s mouth.

Ruby had waited for Yang to finish up, practically vibrating in her seat.

"You’re done! Now I can give you your present!" she says, turning to a shelf above the table where several pictures of their family sat, next to a candle and an artificial rose.

The silver-eyed girl hopped on her tippy-toes and reached for an envelope. 

“You know you didn’t have to get me anything.” Yang responded, using her taller stature to easily reach above the girl and grab the gift. “What is it? A birthday card?”

They had this conversation before. _“_ _Save the money for yourself, Rubes. I’m not important.”_ Yang would say.

"Come on, open it," Ruby practically squealed. "I can't waaaaait!"

Knowing it'd be useless to object, she opens the envelope—which is made of a silky fabric—and pulls out a card made entirely out of dried rose petals. Ruby always had an attachment to them. It was a nice touch.

And while this rose-card was especially pretty, the main thing that caught her eye was the envelope’s contents:

A brand new VDRPR-issued Powered License.

Yang read the license, double-checking that the information listed really belonged to her.

_ Holy shit. _

_ VALE DEPARTMENT FOR THE REGULATION OF POWERED RESOURCES: HERO LICENSE  _

** Name ** **:** _Yang Xiao Long_

 ** Gender ** **:** _Female (Heroine/Huntress)_

 ** Marital Status ** **:** _Single_

 ** Code Name:  ** _____

A code name. She’s been thinking about filling that part out for years. It was blank, obviously, Ruby wouldn’t know anything besides basic information. She never really talked to the younger girl about it much, she didn’t want Ruby to feel like she was the reason she wasn’t following her dream. As always, Ruby was smarter and more intuitive than people gave her credit for.

Now that it was in front of her, she really couldn’t choose. She’s been called lots of things. Her dad called her Little Dragon, her uncle called her Firecracker, her biological mom once called her a Phoenix. Summer, her  real mom, called her a Sunflower but said Yang’s conviction and strength always reminded her of a...

_Wildfire_.

Had a nice ring to it.

Yang stared down in disbelief at the license—Ruby had just given her the gift she’s always dreamed of.

"How…?" she starts to ask, not sure where to begin. “What-“

"All that was left was the humongous bill on your application," Ruby interrupted, waving her off and beaming.

"But Ruby, this is a  lot . We can't possibly afford—"

"Shut up," the silver-eyed girl says, crossing her arms. "The lady, Maria, used to be a Huntress! She’s insisted I took it. You would’ve just told me to keep it for myself and this is a way better use for it! Maria’s money plus what I saved up was just enough! You always  take care of me, Yang, but who will take care of you? You deserve it.”

Ruby smiled brightly, a smile that they both had in common, but those silver eyes filled with determination only reminded her of Summer.

"Thank you . I-I don’t know what to say..." Is all she could manage, awestruck.

"Then just say you’ll do it," Ruby replies, leaning back in her chair and looking older than she had any right to look. “It’s what mom and dad would want. You won’t just be a normal hero you’ll be a Huntress too, I just know it.”

Yang felt the tears coming back and Ruby responded immediately. It was a role reversal that was not unwelcome; the younger sister comforting the older sister. She was used to being the caretaker but tonight she could let go.


	2. Prologue/Part 2

Once upon a time, Yang and Ruby’s parents, The Dragon and The Rose were Vale City's most famous Powered couple. 

When they met in high school along with the rest of their previous team, they discovered that Summer’s ability to heal through use of nature complemented Taiyang’s ability to harness light energy. They were a good example of defense and offense. Tai liked to used hand-to-hand combat with his gun-bracers, Crescent and Celica while Summer wielded a scythe, Ember Rose. Qrow, who had the passive power of Bad Luck had built Summer’s scythe for her along with his own sword, Harbinger. His twin sister, Raven, wielded an Odachi katana, Omen, that aided in the use of her power to slice through dimensions to create portals. Their entire team as a whole fought well together.

Consisting of Tai, Summer, and Yang’s biological mother and uncle, they were an unstoppable force called _Stark_. 

Almost immediately after their team arrived on Vale hero scene, the public became enamored with the partners’ budding romance and their harmonious Power set. Yang always wished to find someone that complemented her as much as her parents complemented each other, on and off the field. Not long after, though, the public soon learned of Tai’s previous hookup with Raven after questioning the young blonde’s and her sister’s appearance. Yang learned who her real mother was but refused to accept her as such.

As they rose rapidly to the hero A-list, no villain was too powerful for them to fight and no gathering was too exclusive for them to attend. The entirety of Stark worked hard and rose through the ranks, being promoted from heroes to Huntsmen. This meant that Yang got to spend her childhood immersed in Vale’s finest hero high life before Ruby was born, knowing that someday she’d fight alongside her parents as a famous Huntress too.

Until Yang’s eighth birthday—Meant to be one of the best nights of her young life, the first time her Powers began to manifest. While the rest of the team were in the crowd conversing, Tai and Summer were at a press conference speaking about one of the duo’s most recent successes—shutting down an villain-training academy masquerading as a prestigious high school while the other half of Stark simultaneously took down their Powered child trafficking ring. It was a villain’s bad attempt at recreating the school that trained the team,  Beacon Academy . They were supposed to say a few words about the mission and then come straight home to celebrate the young blonde’s big night.

However, just as they were preparing to leave, a young villain crashed the event. His name was Roman Torchwick, AKA Lampwick, one of the villain academy's teachers, and he entered yelling about how The Dragon and The Rose had ruined his life. He quickly went on the offensive with his Power of Charm; he could vocally manipulate any weak-minded person to do his bidding for an extended period, it’d never worked on a hero, and the couple moved to apprehend him. But for some odd reason—perhaps because they were in such a rush to get home to their children—they miscalculated their joint attack. An attack two partners practice with each other—It was practically Beacon’s easiest lesson and why partners were so important. The public still couldn’t fathom how they messed up such a move.

In what became the biggest news story of the year, The Dragon and The Rose murdered Lampwick by way of brain damage.

While Summer used her scythe to restrain him, Tai aimed to disable him with a fiery solar blast. Raven got the crowd to safety while Qrow took down Lampwick’s lackeys.

Yang still didn’t know whether her mom misjudged her strength or if her dad miscalculated the angle of the blast. She knew Qrow had always blamed himself and his Power for their failures. 

Either way, when the blast cleared, Lampwick drooped in Summer’s arms, pink brain matter oozing from his nostrils.

It certainly wasn't the first time a hero had accidentally used fatal force against a villain. Traditionally, this mistake would require a fair amount of community service and a substantial fee, especially for heroes of their caliber.

However, this accident came on the heels of a recent string of excessive hero-on-villain brutality and their case fell into the hands of Judge _Jacques Schnee_ , a rich businessman who bought himself into the seat of judge while also making a play to become Vale’s mayor. Deciding that a harsh ruling would set the perfect example for his bullshit zero-tolerance campaign against heroic brutality to gain the favor of non-Powereds and non-heroes, Jacques passed the harshest sentence ever given to any Powered Hero or Huntsmen.

Citing a "murderous misuse of Powered abilities," he sentenced Tai and Summer to a life term in  Salem’s Keep , a maximum security prison for Powereds.

Without visitation rights.

Qrow blamed himself and went to drinking his guilt away, getting himself thrown in and out of jail for “use of officially licensed weaponry while intoxicated”.

Raven had moved away, running from her sentence as a “possible accessory” and left her team to deal with the consequences on their own.

The last time Yang and Ruby saw their parents was on the day of that infamous sentencing, right before the police escorted them to Salem’s Keep. Yang would never forget the image of her mother and father in red jumpsuits, the color that displayed their high power level, handcuffed and shamed, their spirits broken.

Judge Schnee wouldn't even let the heroes hug their children goodbye.

Summer couldn't stop the small tears from escaping as the police escorted her away. But as Tai followed, he turned to Yang and said the words she’d come to live by:

_"Remember what I told you, Little Dragon. Do good, die great.”_   
  


Ruby rememberers some of what happened, Yang however remembered it _all_.

Her father could not have known the profound effect those words would have on her, especially after his unjust treatment at the hands of the legal system.

This lead to the his blonde offspring having strong beliefs regarding the law. She no longer held any respect for it or authority figures, but she knew playing by her own rules and not caring would make her just like Raven. She didn’t want to share the same fate as her parents and become a bad role model for Ruby, but she didn’t mind slightly bending the rules from time to time. Jacques Schnee used his money to bend rules and lock up innocent people like her parents, so why couldn’t she?

After the trial, their parents' considerable fortune was transferred to Lampwick’s estate and Yang and Ruby were assigned to live with their only available relative—Qrow. However, he wasn’t a very stable guardian. He was filled with anger at the system and guilt and kept getting himself arrested. He ultimately left his apartment and everything in it to Yang, not knowing when he’d see them again.

Over the course of their careers, Summer and Tai had amassed a deadly collection of enemies—each of whom would love to seek revenge on The Dragon and The Rose’s now-defenseless family. This was further proven when Yang lost her arm after a revenge attack. The court paid for a prosthetic and enrolled her and Ruby in the Powered Family Protection Program (PFPP).

They were given brand new identities to use when out in public. Yang suddenly found herself forced to live on a pitiful PFPP stipend and had to move into a new small apartment in the East Side with Ruby. She also had to pull the younger girl out of her Powered-only private school and enroll her into the local public school.

In the course of a few short months, their life became entirely unrecognizable…and it has never been the same since.

In the villainous public’s eyes, Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose was no more, they died in the fire that burnt down Qrow’s apartment. Yang found that the this version of herself was vastly different, forced to grow up way faster than anyone ever should….

__

Back in the kitchen, she glanced across the table at Ruby. She's the only other person in the world who understands how she feels—after all, they spent most of their lives together. Despite this, Ruby has still managed to start over and find a way to be happy again.

And without her, Yang would have had no shot at becoming a hero.

"Thank you, Ruby," Yang repeats, fighting against the lump forming in her throat, staring down at her cold metal arm. “What abo-“

"Don’t worry about me. I drink milk,” Ruby grinned. "I bet I can lift more than that super-baby. I’m not six anymore, Yang. I can handle myself.”

  
Afterwards, Yang went into her room, filled with a newfound determination and excitement. The small bedroom was always decorated pretty plainly but what truly makes the room hers is the wall filled with a framed posters of Stark, mainly her parents.

Featured centrally is the photo of Tai and Summer in their original Dragon and Rose outfits during their first debut; Tai’s infamous brown vest get-up and Summer’s pristine white hooded cape. Next to it was a family photo of Tai chasing Yang after the couple found out she could fly. Seven years after, another picture was taken; Yang chasing Ruby after the young girl tried to race a bullet train and won.

She wished their parents were able to see Ruby’s powers manifest.

Yang glanced to the other side of her room, where an old poster of a young team of heroes she idolized when she was a teen hung on the wall; Coco Adel and her renowned group of Beacon graduates. They were highschoolers when she was in middle school but there was just something about them that she always liked. They always helped the community until they were old enough to be heroes.

Then there was _The White Fang_ , a group of faunas vigilantes that made a name for themselves, fighting against those who didn’t believe that faunas should be considered Powered or even heroes. Back then, her and many of her young peers followed their protests and fights online, it was the talk of the town. They weren’t really villains at first but vigilantism was illegal, therefore they were treated like criminals. The most well-known WF members were Bullseye and his young protégé, Nightshade. She was about Yang’s age and was a vigilante pretty much ever since she was young.

“You can’t stop being gay for Nightshade for five minutes can you?” Ruby suddenly spoke, breaking the blonde from her reverie.

“I’m not gay for- shut up. I just like the aesthetic, okay? Jeez.” Yang defended.

“Oh the aesthetic, huh? I think you have the hots for brunettes like da—“

“Hey!” Ruby’s muffled voice shouted behind the now-closed door, followed by laughter and the sound of footsteps retreating back to her own room.

Nightshade rose to the scene after single-handedly protecting Vale from a White Fang terrorist incursion last year, when the group became angry and terroristic under the grasp of Bullseye instead of simple vigilantism.

Even though her origin remains completely shrouded in mystery, she is currently VC’s most popular solo faunas heroines—especially after leaving and defeating The White Fang and receiving the most recent Vale City's Hero of Tomorrow (HoT) grant, which is the most esteemed honor that can be bestowed upon any aspiring hero. She made a name for herself as a heroine, legally, instead of a vigilante. Any charges against her were ultimately dropped because of her help and the fact that she was underage when she was a member anyway.

It didn’t hurt that the girl is absolutely gorgeous, either.

Despite the mainstream hype and Ruby’s teasing, Yang couldn’t help but be attracted to the mystery, like most of the city. Mostly because of her uncaring and humble attitude. The city practically had to force the award on her before she would take it.

Nightshade had became a hero early on while Yang is just now getting the final paperwork done. So she remembers seeing her on TV from when she was a young vigilante to the mysterious heroine she is now.

Every morning when she was a kid, she would stare at the hero wall and envision what her own poster would look like amongst them.

Peeling her lilac gaze away, her attention wandered down to the other video game she was supposed to be testing. Now that she has her license, she can finally quit the game-testing job and any other quick-paying gigs, since there are dozens of ways for heroes to earn a living.

Most of those paid jobs are very difficult to obtain, though—she’s heard the horror stories about the endless lines at the VDRPR to collect Powered Hero Unemployment.

Still, she didn’t think twice about tossing her resume in the trash and reaching for her most-prized possessions : the Wildfire costume.

It took an extremely long time to think up a costume but after she shared her ideas with Ruby, the younger girl had designed the perfect suit with one of her friends, Penny.

Yang reminded herself to put a mask on her face to protect her identity. Even though no one would ever recognize her as one of The Dragon and Rose’s children now that she’s all grown up, she didn’t need anyone discovering her fake identity and coming after Ruby.

She perfected the costume for years, since it's the calling card of a hero. With Ruby’s design and her own ideas, it looked more like an outfit than a costume but that’s how she liked it. Representing her dad’s colors while Ruby would use Summer’s, if she ever became a hero. She already designed a red cape that resembled Summer’s that she wore everyday.

Yang snapped her fingers, watching golden energy emanate from her fingers and fizzle out.

As the pop of gold energy faded, she looked over the outfit in the mirror. Knowing that style without substance meant very little, she also had design features that amplified her Powers implemented.

Truth be told, she’d have been able to afford the hero license way sooner if she hadn't spent so much money on the upgrades.

She knew she was always more privy to Tai’s fighting style and her gauntlets that she named, Ember Celica, showed as much.

“Nailed it.”

Standing there in the perfect costume and with all of her intentions set, she realized something.

Becoming a Huntress means more than just fulfilling her own dreams—it's also about redeeming the Xiao Long-Rose name. Her ultimate goal: to become an A-list Huntress and reveal to Vale City that she is actually one of The Dragon and The Rose’s children. So they can suck on _that_.

Coco was at one of the highest local levels ever, she’d have to beat that.

Sighing, she placed the license on her desk since the plastic version is only a keepsake. The official version of the license has already been scanned and uploaded into her VChip, a bit of personal tablet technology embedded in the underside of her prosthetic’s wrist. Ruby had already gotten her hands on it and tweaked it.

Not too long ago, people used paper slips to pay for things and little, plastic devices as phones, but that was before all communication, identification, entertainment, and banking functions became standard in VChips.

“Hey, did you do it yet!?” Ruby squawked from inside the blonde’s head.

“Yes and you don’t need to scream, you know? I can hear you.”

All VChip functions are connected directly to your senses, so Ruby floats in front of her eyes thanks to holographic imaging wired to her retinas. Only she is able to see VChip Ruby, who appears as a holograph version of the energetic girl for communication.

"Sorry. Oh and I added some extra things for you in your arm.”

"Thanks, Rubes," she says, smiling.

On her way out of the room, Yang grabbed her things, stopping momentarily to get more information.

"Hey," She says, "Show me where the-“

"I’m just gonna let you know that you look crazy talking to yourself there," Ruby says from the doorway.

"Well I was talking to you...if you’d stop teleporting behind me all the time.” Yang says, turning toward the younger girl.

"I don’t teleport, I’m just fast, you just never pay attention. Pretty sure paying attention is, like, Rule Number One in the hero book, sis.”

"Well, this hero had better get out there," Yang says, shaking off her nerves. "This career ain't going to start itself."

"Wait, before you go…"

Ruby walks towards her with an envelope in her hands. Yang’s stomach drops.

"You know, ” the younger girl says, her silver eyes on the floor. "They'd want to be here so badly…."

Her jaw goes tight—she knows exactly what Ruby wants her to do.

While Salem’s Keep may not allow its prisoners to have any visitors, it does permit them to receive letters. So for years they wrote to their parents together, telling them everything about their lives. Yang thought writing those letters would make her feel better but it only made her feel worse.

Because the prison doesn't allow its prisoners to write any letters back.

"It's been years since you've wrote them anything, Yang…."

Ruby looked up at her and her heart felt like it might break.

”I’m sorry, ” Yang whispers, ”but you know how I feel about it.”

Ruby was too young when everything happened but Yang was plagued with reminders of it everyday. It’s bad enough that all she can see is Summer when she looks at her.

”Okay...just be careful out there.”

”I will, I promise.”

Ready to go, she stepped up on their window's thirteenth-story ledge and looked out over the grandeur of Vale City. One of the advantages of living in the East Side is the spectacular view of VC’s iconic skyline. She took a deep breath, letting the energy of the city run through her.

Standing on this precipice, thoughts ran unbidden through her head...right before she jumped off the ledge. 


	3. 1

Free falling to the streets below, she dropped ten stories before tensing her muscles as her flight kicked in.

Yang allowed herself one joy ride up into a bank of clouds before swooping back down toward the cover of the skyline. Having her Hero License makes flying legal buuut she still didn't need to start her career with an unregistered flying ticket. So she stuck to cruising low against the buildings toward the heart of the city, toward downtown Vale City.

The flight from the East Side takes her across the quaint brownstones overlooking Mount Glenn and the Town Center. Pulling in closer to the high-end metal giants that mark downtown, she lands on a ledge lined with silver statues of lions.

One of the hardest parts of being a rookie hero is finding cases—a fact she’s reminded of as a pink-clad heroine, who oddly resembles her friend Nora, bothers some teenagers in a nearby alley and three metal Atlesian Knights thunder through the sky above. Even if she’s lucky enough to stumble upon a decent case, she’ll still have to beat out dozens of other aspiring heroes to accomplish the mission and get the credit.

”Yeah...this isn't going to work.”

When life was turned upside down by her parents' imprisonment, one of the only people Yang could trust was the PFPP agent assigned to her case: Glynda Goodwitch. Even though Glynda wasn't a hero anymore, she loved the Powered Hero stuff just as much as Yang did. So when her and Ruby had no one else to talk to, the girls would spend hours talking to Glynda about all of their favorite heroes, games, and comics when they were younger.

Unfortunately, Glynda had to retire and spent the rest of her time training the young woman who would take her place,  _Weiss Schnee._

As soon as Yang heard it was a Schnee, she wanted nothing to do with her, but after Weiss clarified that she truly wanted to help and wanted nothing to do with her father, she gave her a chance. She wanted to help the people in Powered Protection, knowing her father put most of them in that situation, including Tai and Summer. Weiss wasn't  _that_ bad in Yang’s opinion. In fact, it was pretty fun to tease the ice queen. Ruby had ended up talking to her more and was the main reason they were all friends now.

Of course, Weiss is the best person to call to tell about her heroic start, especially since she'll have advice on how to find a good first case.

Yang held her arm up and pushed the button on her metal wrist, popping open a panel to reveal the embedded VChip.

She supposed she also had the VChip to thank for her Powers, since the current accepted "Powered Origin" theory is that advanced technology paved the way for Powered abilities. This theory suggests that once humans integrated with tablet technology, these tablets began to cover many basic functions (like memory and navigation, for example). Once adjusted to this technological enhancement, the human body was able to evolve and unlock every part of their brain and new potential in the form of Powered abilities.

These Powers then began to solve pressing global problems, since humans could now do things like generate natural resources and survive in harsher conditions. It seems that the early twenty-first-century technological boom laid the groundwork for the twenty-second-century Powered boom and so on, which has once again caused the world to change in amazing ways.

However, despite the VChip's ceaseless wonders, she currently just needs it to make a call.

"Ruby," Yang says, "call Weiss."

_"You’re calling Weiss?!"_ Ruby echoes in her ear.  _"Tell my BFF I said hiii!”_

Weiss picks up right away, her face appearing holographically in front of her. Since she's such a brat, Yang tends to forget how pretty she actually is—she's German but her family moved her to America at a young age so no thick accent unless she finds herself cursing Yang out in Germanic. She wore her snow-white hair in a tight ponytail today instead of the braid, causing her to appear sleek and no-nonsense.

Yeah, Yang doesn't think she’s bad looking _per sé_ but she hardly thinks there’s as much sexual tension as Ruby says there is. They just have a weird relationship and Yang is naturally flirtatious.

Right now, Weiss looks a bit surprised to see her, probably because she has never seen the Wildfire costume before.

"I assume this means Ruby gave you your license?" Weiss says, only small traces of her German accent still present despite years of living in Vale.

"You mean you _knew_ she had my license and you didn't tell me?" She asks, mildly offended.

"Oh  _please_ , Ruby wouldn't have been able to keep the secret long anyway. Now, check your email for your birthday present," The heiress says, looking Yang over. "Also, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hero’s costume include a _bomber jacket_.”

Not missing a beat, Yang shot back. ”Listen, I’m not gonna take advice from the tiny German with a Napoleon complex.”

”Ha ha, ” She replied dryly. ”I’m positively dying from laughter. Anyway you insufferable oaf, I have to go but I’ve sent a tip to you. With such a ’pun coneseur’ such as yourself, I suppose you’d call it a finger-tip.”

”Um, okay. Thanks, princess.”

Weiss groans before hanging up (one of her favorite things to do). Knowing that calling her back would be useless, she has Ruby fish through her email instead.

And sure enough, Weiss sent quite a fantastic birthday present: a link to a hand-picked case listing. Maybe she's not so intolerable after all.

Yang smiles as she starts to read, because the case has been sponsored by _Schnee Industries_ , Vale’s wealthiest corporation, the Schnee family had a major stake in the construction of the fusion plant that now powers all of western America). Turns out Weiss’ estranged brother, Whitley Schnee, recently held a charity gala at his townhouse for the Powered Orphan Fund. Naturally it was the must-attend event of the social season, especially since the theme was a Powered masquerade ball.

The party was a smashing success but the next day Whitley woke up to find one of his most prized possessions had been stolen. A party guest managed to get past the considerable security measures and steal a valuable artifact: _The Relic_ , a mysterious lamp rumored to have hidden powers.

What little is known about The Relic makes it one of a kind, highly valuable and potentially dangerous. The police were looking into the theft but Whitley wants the artifact back so badly that he has opened the case up to any Powered Hero, preferably a Huntsmen.

…with a reward of $250,000.

Yang nearly choked—that's a  _lot_ of money.

With such a large reward at stake, along with inevitable media coverage surrounding the high-profile case, she knew the competition on this one was going to be fierce. She checked the page views on the listing and of course it has already been visited  thousands of times. She promised herself she’d go big or go home. This would certainly qualify as going big.

It would also be taking money right from a Schnee’s hands. Weiss most likely sent this case on purpose.

”Well don’t mind if I do.”

Heroes should be the new standard for justice. She’s going to prove that by solving this case.

Unfortunately, the only clue available on this case is a photo of the suspected thief who was an unnamed plus-one guest at the gala. The photo features a man dressed in an expensive grey suit and wearing a black mask. To match his emerald-encrusted mask, the thief's suit was lined with green piping and his fingertips were orange.

The photo isn't a whole lot to go on, so she starts to wonder what kind of-

But then a thought hits her so hard, she almost fell off of the ledge.

_ Fingertip. Nice one, Weiss. _

That tiny German was a genius, knowing that the guy’s fingers we're probably the only shot she had at solving the case. She even purposely used a pun, Yang was proud.

Vale’s government requires that large-scale building projects designate a portion of their budget to Powered Arts spending. Since Summer had a particularly green thumb, she sometimes cultivated unique flowers in her spare time, commissioned by emerging property owners.

One of Summer’s biggest sales was a species of crossbred sunflowers that changed colors at night. It took her years to achieve that horticultural miracle, but there was one flaw in the design. If you touched one of the flowers, it turned your fingertips a different color, depending on the time of day.

Summer sold the sunflowers exclusively to one downtown high-rise building. This means that if the thief's fingertips were painted orange from the flowers, she now knows exactly where he lives (since only one penthouse apartment got the special plants). It was hard for Yang to forget since Summer named the breed of sunflowers after her.

That's the reason Weiss sent this particular case listing—she also knows about Summer and the flower imprinting. She must have seen the thief's fingertips in the case photo and waited on the information, knowing Yang would be legally licensed to investigate today, on her birthday.

Yang leapt off the roof in the direction of the penthouse with a quick _’_ _aw yeah’,_ excitement coursing through her veins. This was big case. It was a lot for her to take on for her first night but Weiss obviously thought she could handle it.

The sunflower apartment is in central downtown, so the flight over should be short. It's also good that the thief can afford a penthouse because it’ll be pretty easy for her to access by flight.

Her first priority is finding The Relic, but catching the thief would be an added bonus.

As the ritzy high-rise comes into view, she could already see the flowers on the balcony. Yang relaxed her muscles and slowed her pace as she approached the building, which proved difficult as adrenaline pulsed through her veins.

She dropped down along the wall, trying to keep out of sight—a building like this is bound to have anti-Powered security measures. Hovering close to the penthouse's window, she peeked into the living room to see if anyone was home….

Yang’s heart nearly stopped when she came face to face with a man standing inside the apartment, inches away from the glass.

It's _definitely_ the thief from the case photo, right down to the orange-stained fingertips. Currently, he looks far less regal and far more menacing, with slight stubble and spiky grey-dyed hair. She froze, trying to decide what to do.

Unfortunately, the thief thought faster—he whips out a handgun and points it directly at her head.

Panicked, she closed her eyes and let out a low-level energy pulse. She hears the glass wall separating her from the man shatter and when she opened her eyes, his gun lay on the floor, melted beyond repair.

A loud alarm began to sound and he makes a run for it. Luckily, with the window now broken, she’s able to fly right after him.

While pursuing the criminal, she anticipates him to run for the front door—which is why she’s puzzled when he runs deeper into the extravagantly decorated flat.

Yang sprints after him into the master bedroom suite and as she does, her question about his escape plan is suddenly answered:

That asshole didn't head for the front door because he's got a teleportation unit in his bedroom.

Which, yeah, smart move but come on, he was just making this a hundred times harder than it really needed to be. It’s not like Yang wasn't physically fit but she also wasn't Ruby.

Private teleportation units were presumed to be the next wave of the transportation future but the automotive industry accumulated millions of dollars into research that revealed the potential cancer risks of atomic fission; the same radiation one would get from 21st Century cellphones. So the government had to ban the sale of the units, putting everyone back into planes, trains, and motorcycles and automobiles. 

This bandit didn't seem to care about conceivable carcinogens, however, since he’s already inside the unit and programming the machine's next teleportation course. Fantastic.

”Ruby,  _hypothetically_ , if I wanted to completely destroy a teleportation unit along with the idiot inside, how would I go about doing that?”

”You’re bluffing.” The man declares.

_” Well sister, hypothetically, you would need to hit the control console at the front of the unit. ”_

”Is that right?” Without hesitation, she points a finger-gun at the console and lets out an energy blast that ripped into the center controls.

The man screams and jumps from the smoking unit. Irritated, he looks up at her and snarls, "that was a dumb move, blondie.”

Yang could barely hear him over the alarm blaring in her ears—she knew it'll only be minutes before the Vale PD shows up, so she had to act fast. The thief seemed to be thinking the same thing as he jumped to his feet and got into a kick-boxing stance.

It may have been dumb but she did it anyway.

She flys straight for him, seeing for the first time that he had a weapon built into his prosthetic legs. 

As she reached the man, he tries to throw a kick with his metal leg, sending bullets with the spread of a shotgun over yonder but she ducks under the blow. While he's off-guard, she holds out her fists and hovers a few feet off the ground, beginning to spin.  
Yang immediately barrages the thief with a series of spinning punches, with the help of her gauntlets, knocking him off of his feet and sending him reeling across the room.

Just as she had the thief disabled, the wail of police sirens rung from the streets below.

"Dammit!" She curses, knowing she was almost out of time. She still wasn’t sure if The Relic was even here in the apartment….

She considered her options.

_“Yang, you should wait for the police and just let them find the lamp thingy. You could garner some good-will with the VCPD.”_ Ruby suggested, allowing herself free-reign with Yang’s visuals.

But it also might compromise her access to Whitley’s reward.

”Or, and just hear me out here, I could interrogate him myself and we’d still get the reward.” She countered.

But doing this would definitely be pissing off Vale’s finest in blue.

Unfortunately for them, Yang couldn’t care less.

The blonde tapped a button on her wrist, temporarily disconnecting Ruby.

"Look buddy, tell me where The Relic is."

She stood over the now-defenseless thief, allowing golden energy to viciously crackle across her fingertips.

"All right, all right," he starts. "The Relic is in the safe in the—ARRRGHHH!! You crazy bitch!”

He knows that she doesn’t have time to check the apartment before the police arrive, so she’ll need to make sure he's telling the truth. Which is why she fired a thin beam of flame directly through his thigh.

"Don’t lie to me," she growled.

"OK! OK!" the thief shouts, writhing on the floor. "I was hired to steal it—I'm Mercury, you’ve probably heard of me. I-I’m not really Powered, not  anymore , but I can discover the location of anything on the planet, so finding and stealing things is—"

"No stalling! Who hired you?" Yang cuts him off, hearing the police already banging on the front door.

"Oh no, no way in  _hell_ . That is one crazy woman, crazier than you blondie, she will fucking  _kill_ me. She’ll beat me so bad I won’t be able to have children-“

Yang flexes her hand, producing a ball of fire. The lilac color drained from her irises, only leaving a burning red that didn’t match the smile she had on her face. “I mean, if you’re so worried about that, I can just do it right now and get it over with.” She gestured at the spot between his legs with her other hand.

His dark eyes widened for a split second before he shook his head. “Okay, I take it back. You’re definitely just as crazy.....it was Cinder, okay?!" He yells. "I handed The Relic over to her right away. But that's all I know, I _swear_!"

Yang froze, because she knows exactly who Cinder is. And hearing that she's involved is not good news at all.

As the front door comes crashing down, she knocks Mercury out with one swift punch.

Then pulls out a small card that read " _Wildfire_ ". Even though she doesn't want to work with the police, they should still know the name of the badass who helped them on the case.

She drops the card on him and ran for the window, bursting outside just as the police come swarming into the bedroom.


End file.
